By now you’ve probably heard of hCG for weight loss. hCG can result in rapid weight loss, but comes with potential issues.

What Is hCG?

In the 1950’s, a British physician Albert Simeons proposed that a hormone found in the urine of pregnant women could help to bring about weight loss. He believed that an injection of this hormone could allow people to survive on 500 calories a day, burn stored fat, and reduce appetite. Human chorionic gonadotrophin (hCG) was tested extensively, but lost popularity until Kevin Trudeau wrote a book which advocated its use.

All studies on hCG seem to follow the same pattern. Those that test it alongside normal diets result in no effects, but those who follow Dr. Simeon’s plan to restrict calorie intake to around 500 calories per day result in weight loss. Of course, it is really no breakthrough to discover that starvation causes immediate weight loss.

For some victims, a more bitter fact will be discovering that a large component of this starvation diet relies on starving the body of essential nutrition. True hCG is only available by prescription in the United States, which clues us into something about all of the internet offers. The hCG you get is actually a homeopathic preparation.

Due to hCG being available only by prescription, the homeopathic preparations can contain no detectable amount of the substance whatsoever. Thus, homeopathic hCG drops contain either another unknown substance, or nothing at all.

Starvation can cause long-term damage to the body. It is seen as a result of both the homeopathic and the real hCG versions associated with a 500 calorie diet. Ironically, a body will react to this perceived emergency state by attempting to metabolize everything into fat cells, which will usually mean long term obesity problems for decades.

Prescription hCG is only an F.D.A.-approved fertility drug, and it is listed by the F.D.A. as pregnancy category X. Any serious research will produce a long list of potential adverse reactions. Most doctors, even those who specialize in weight loss, will not advocate or prescribe hCG for these reasons. The list that we have provided is not complete, but it gives a glimpse into the reality of this supposed ‘miracle cure for obesity’.

Known Effects of hCG

Ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (OHSS)

Birth deformities, if taken during pregnancy

Early puberty

Prostate cancer

Stomach pain

Shortness of breath

Weight gain

Diarrhea Nausea and vomiting

Headaches

Depression

Breast tenderness, swelling, and edema

Pharmaceutical hCG can be obtained through a weekly injection, or in drops that are placed under the tongue. This is generally combined with a starvation diet to yield rapid weight loss. Of course, one could just as well substitute chemotherapy drugs for an even faster weight loss. H.C.G. will mostly cause a loss of muscle tissues, and organ tissues. A user of hCG certainly will not be exercising, and may have trouble with routine walking with only 500 calories per day, during his wasting away period of usage. The full effects are sometimes only felt years later, when permanent catastrophic damage has been done. Delayed discovery of such pharmaceutical side effects are often not properly attributed to their real cause, so it is difficult to know how much damage hCG. does. Those who get a prescription for the real thing are getting much more than they bargained for.

Our concern with the pharmaceutical is actually related to its efficacy. Starvation creates fat gain in the long term, since a body will begin defending itself by storing everything as fat, in its emergency famine mode. Toxic pharmaceuticals have the same fat producing effect, because a body will store unflushable toxins inside newly created fat cells to shield itself. It is easy to lose short term weight through poisoning, but this is hardly health wise. Instead, people should know that serious risks accompany this “wonder drug”, and it is not part of any legitimate alternative medicine. Its embrace by homeopaths seems to have created a deceptive tie between hCG and natural medicines, when no such association exists.

This hormone is not safe for anyone other than those using it in an attempt at pregnancy, and it comes at a high price.

The American Society of Bariatric Physicians (ASBP) recently ruled that hCG is not an effective treatment for obesity. Medi-Weightloss®, our physician-supervised weight loss program, is compliant with all of the ASBP standards and does not endorse hCG as a method of weight loss.